Boxers, Angola, Louisiana 22 - 1999

Deborah Luster made this tintype, *Boxers, Angola, Louisiana*, without a specified date, by manipulating light and chemistry. The sepia tones give it a dreamlike feel, like an old memory. The thing about tintypes is that they're made directly on metal, there’s no negative, each one’s unique, unrepeatable, a one-off. Look at the way Luster coaxes the light, how she burnishes the shadows around the figures to create this intense atmosphere of two boxers ready for combat. Notice how the light glances off the surface, creating these ghostly highlights on their faces and clothes. The jeans look almost tie dyed, in a manner that feels like decay or a ghostly residue. The composition gives the portrait this electric charge, a psychological tension. This makes me think of Diane Arbus, who was similarly drawn to the margins of society. Like Arbus, Luster shows us the beauty and dignity in the unexpected. It’s this collision of violence and tenderness that makes the image so haunting.